What’s in store for book reviews

Saturday is book review day, but I confess I didnt get anything new read over Christmas. I started a couple of new ones, though!

This year I’ve got my work cut out for me, since I’ve signed up to read 60 books for Goodreads, 52 read and reviews for the Mad Reviewer’s Challenge, and the extraordinary melange (have you noticed I love that word?) that is the BookShelf Gargoyle’s Small Fry Safari. Of course they all count towards the overall total. I think 60 might be excessive – I’m a writer rather than a reader and I’m not really a reviewer, I just like expressing my opinion! But I did just more than one a week last year, and maybe it’ll help me make a hole in my to-read list.

The trouble is that the Safari has very specific requirements to meet, and it’s hard to meet them from my to-read list, even when I go way down the end to things I don’t own yet. I’ve got a few books that fit the “Safari” category, and a few with “Someone’s name” in the titles. I went right down the list to find single titles that would satisfy the “Specific Time”, “Wordplay in title” and “Unsightly”, although my one for that is more sensory than just sight. I’ve got an ebook already for “Something Precious” (that also has someone’s name in it), and I hope the “Something in Pairs” will be satisfied by Zoe & Zak’s adventure with the Tiger Temple. But the “Piece of Furniture” has me stumped for a kidlit (max YA) challenge. I have Death in a Red Canvas Chair to read and would love to include it, but murder mysteries are not kidlit. Is it YA, I wonder? I may cheat on this and go for Mr Planemaker’s Flying Machine instead. After all, you sit in a flying machine. Do you think the Bookshelf Gargoyle will exact retribution? There’s still time to sign up for this – click the badge on the left further down the page.

I have another challenge as well. In April it is, of course, the A to Z Challenge and my theme this year is the NATO phonetic alphabet. This is in honour of the publication of the sixth book in the Princelings series, Bravo Victor. I was quite pleased when I thought of that as a theme as well! By my calculation, I will have to do book reviews that feature Echo, Kilo, Quebec, and Whisky. These, of course, do not have to be kidlit, which is just as well.

Echo could be a dolphin story and talk about echolocation as well.

I have a book on Yoga for Weightloss, which could do for Kilo if I’m desperate, I suppose.

Any ideas on Quebec or Whisky, anyone?

Dylan’s Yuletide Journey more or less features bootleg whisky, but it’s due to be unpublished on Monday – so grab it now before it’s too late! I suppose I could put it back on sale (free) just for April…

4 thoughts on “What’s in store for book reviews”

Well you’re doing better than me – I’m hoping that my Safari titles will materialise out of the ether just when I need them.
The Mad Reviewer’s challenge sounds right up my alley – I’m off to check it out!

I have thought about doing all picture books for the Safari Challenge. I think I need all of January to figure out what I’ll be reading. I know if I get picture books, Neighbor Girl will have time to read along and provide input, too. I think in picture book land, you may find a furniture title…I did a quick search online at the local library and found some options:
“What we found in the sofa and how it saved the world.” (355 pages)
“A Chair for always” (picture book)
“My chair” (Picture book)
Hmm… this is helping me, too.

I was thinking about the Ato Z challenge, too… but I’ve decided to start updating my own blog this year and may do that there.

Although doing the A to Z is a lot of work if you do it seriously (do all the posts early then spend each day in April hopping at least 20 sites), I think it is a good way of attracting new visitors – many of whom become friends 🙂

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